A Great Camp-Meeting in the Promised Land
Refrain: |
Gwine to mourn an' nebber tire, |
Gwine to hab it in heben, |
Dere's a better day comin', |
Sundquist, in To Wake the Nations (496-97) thinks that the lyrics are accomodationist, in marked contrast to the militant epigraph from Byron. Satisfaction is deferred to "heben." The words are in a possibly caricatured black dialect measured to please white audiences. But the song could have also been construed as an announcement of a secret meeting among the slaves according to Yolanda Y. Smith, in "He Still Wid Us—Jesus: The Musical Theology of Spirituals," in Christianity Today. That would contradict Sundquist's reading but it is not clear what would be the interpretation in its stead. Perhaps the song construed as an announcement is DuBois' call to action, a call for the non-accomodationists to get together, with the promised land being the world above the veil of racism. This would put Washington in the role of powerful oppressor, with the non-accomodationists meeting, perhaps in secret at first, to strike a blow against the neo-slavery of the "New" South.
| Chapter | Title of Chapter | Chapter's Song | Significance of the song | Author | Title | Comment |
| 3 | Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others | A Great Camp-meeting in the Promised Land | Sarcastic selection? Not a master song | Byron | "Child Harold's Pilgrimmage" | Who would be free must strike |